Water-closet seat



June 3. 19 v E. w. scH I WATER CLQSET SEAT Filed 1921 Patented June 3, 1924?.

PATENT EARL W. SCHAFER, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

WATER-CLOSET SEAT.

Application filed May 23, 1921. Serial .No. 471,596.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, EARL W. Scrrarnn, a citizen of the United States, residing in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in VVater-Closet Seats, of which the following is a specification.

My present invention relates to features of construction of woodenring-like seats for water closet bowls, and its chief objects are to provide a seat having the desired -,strength, security and permanency at its joints, and to obtain a notably strong construction with substantially the minimum of arts. p In order that such a seat, formed of. relatively thin and narrow material and in ring form, shall have suitable strength it appears essential that it shall be composed of at least four sections whereby the grain of the wood may extend at least approximately in the direction of the ring at the various.

places therein, and it is further necessary that the wood sections be joined to each other quite strongly since the seat is subject to various strains and to the efiectof moisture tending to disrupt the joints. A serious objection to such seats often is that the joints become loose, develop relative movement thereat and not only thereby become generally unsatisfactory but, while being used in that condition, they frequently develop a pinching action and cause painful wounds. To overcome such objections it been customary to build up such seats by the use of a considerable number of sections abutting each other both end to end and side by side and overlapping each other longitudinally in various ways, such seats being relatively expensive and still subject to separation at the joints when in use.

According to these improvements I em ployonly what I consider the minimum number of sections and provide a joint which is so strong as to insure the maintenance of the structure for as long a period as may be desired.

In the accompanying drawings, which form a part of this specification, Figure l. is a top or face view of my improved seat; Fig. 2 is an enlarged fragmentary perspective of the construction at one of the joints; and Fig. 3 is a sectional view, as substan tially on the line 3-3 of Figs. 1 or 2.

My improved toilet seat comprises the rear wood section 10, the two side wood sec tions 11 and the front wood section 12, the grain of the wood extending in the longitudinal direction of the sections respectively. These sections are joined together by a form of connection at each joint which is well shown in Fig. 3. It comprises a plurality of vanes 14 on one section and a plurality of similar vanes 15 on the contiguous section, these vanesbeing in planes parallel to each other and horizontal when the seat is in its normally horizontal position, the vanes extending in length from the outer edge 16 of the seat to the inner edge 17 thereof and extending forwardly or in the direction of .depth a relatively great distance, in my practice approximately an inch, and being spaced apart a distance corresponding to the thickness of the vanes whereby there is provided between adjacent vanesrelatively deep recesses adapted to be occupied with a tight fit by the vanes of the contiguous seat section, as well illustrated in Fig. 2, the vanes tapering from a greater thickness at the base to a lesser thickness at the free end whereby they devolop substantially all of the, strength pos sible to be had from the wood.

From Fig. 1 it will be observed that the four joints there shown are on lines which are substantially at forty-five degrees with respect to the grain of wood of the sections respectively, the grain of sections 10 and 12 being considered as horizontal and thatfor sections 11 being considered as vertical as there shown. The vanes 14 and 15 project forward a relatively great distance and define relatively deep grooves whereby when the sections are together as shown by Fig. 3 the contiguous vanes overlap each other deeply and it is only close to the inner edge 17 ateacli joint where there is a small area in which the overlapping vanes do not contain long grain which extends well into the body of the section. According to this arrangement also it will be observed that while the vanes 14- and 15 project forward substantially in the direction of the section at that place "the grain of the wood is on a long diagonal across the vane whereby the effective length of the vane, at least with respect to the grain of the wood, is increased even over the notably great forward extension or depth provided for them. The result is that when the sections are forced together and glued, with a plurality of these relatively slender vanes in tight-fitting and deeply overlapped relation a notably strong joint is made by such construction alone.

My improved seat is, however, much further strengthened in several ways and, im portantly, the sections are locked together beyond the possibility of separation when in use. The forces tending to separate the joints are chiefly due to weight directly applied upon the top of the seat, tending to cause the seat to bend downward. There is also, however, a considerable amount of warping or twisting strain due to the shifting of the weight upon the seat. In the further construction of my improved device I bore two holes 18 from the bottom surface of the seat through the overlapping vanes 14 and 15 substantially midway of their ends, these holes 18 extending vertically upward when the seat is horizontal. They preferably do not extend entirely through the seat, however, so that when the seat is finished these pins will not show on the upper surface. Importantly, also, these pins thus being covered over and being protected from the moisture present to a great extent on the upper surface of the seat there is but slight chance that these pins will ever become loosened through the weakening of the glue due to moisture finding its way into the body of the structure along the pins. These pins 20 are in my practice also of wood, and fit tightly into the holes 18 and are driven and glued in place. They not only positively lock the contiguous sections against withdrawal from each other, but they have the further important function of stiffening the joint very materially, since flexing strains applied on the top of the seat develop shearing strains upon the pins, thus providing additional resistance against the bending of the seat at the joint. Furthermore, it will be noted that the upper vane 15 of one section and the lower vane 14 of the other section are respectively provided with a rearwardly slanting face at 23 and 24 and the surface of the abutting wood there on the opposite section in each case is correspondingly surfaced, or undercut, so that both at top and bottom there is here a positive interlock between the inter-.

the rounding of the top suface of the seat, the vanes thereby outcropping at different angles.

it may further be pointed out that the use of two pin-like holding members as 20 which are well spaced laterally from the middle of the joint not only increase the rigidity and permanency of the joint in the directions already pointed out, but they strongly resist the tendency of the sections to bend laterally at the joint out of their normal faceview positions as seen in Fig. 1. It is mentioned too that the taper of the vanes also helps the construction in this respect.

I claim:

1. In a toilet seat or the like comprising wood sections abutting one another, the combination of sections having interfitting ends comprising complemental and corresponding extensions and recesses, the outermost of said extensions being on opposite sections and having chamfered ends, the recesses in which said outermost extensions engage being undercut to interfit with said chamfered ends, and a dowel pin extending upwardly through the lowermost extension and a portion of the interlitting extensions superposed thereupon.

2. In a toilet seat of the character described comprising wood sections abutting each other, the combination of a section having a plurality of relatively thin and deep vanes extending with gradually reduced thickness in a common forward direction at the section end, the vanes being in planes substantially parallel to each other and extending in horizontal directions crosswise of the sections when the seat is horizontal, the vanes being spaced apart to provide substantially corresponding relatively deep and parallel tapering recesses between them, a second section having similar vanes and recesses, the vanes of one section interfitting with the recesses of the other section and vice versa' whereby contiguous vanes overlap each other relatively deeply, the top and bottom vanes respectively having a rearwardly slanting front edge, the abutting section being undercut at the place where said edge abuts the same to form an interlocking joint, the sections when in said interfitting relation having a registering hole transversely through various of the overlapping vanes, and a pin-like member tightly fitting in said hole for locking the stations together.

EARL W. SCHAFER. 

